Monday, November 30, 2009

As I was photographing a small sun skink hiding in a tree hole when some of the students said snake. I was pretty sure that they were calling the skink a snake since they coudn't really see any legs. I tried to explain to them that it wasn't a snake, but then they pointed to the water and said snake again. I looked down. Gosh. They were right. It was a snake.

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It was a Dog-Faced Water Snake, a common species though it was the first time I'm seeing one. I quickly tried to get some shots but the snake was swimming away fast. I managed a few shots but they still didn't look clear.

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The snake slithered away and I was dissapointed. Anyway, we had to leave it and so continued walking through the path. Just as we finished another turn in the path, my friend called out 'snake!'. I looked beside the path and there was another Dog-Faced Water Snake. However, this one was even more quick and left me in shame witha single shot, even that one was blur.

When the tide goes up... so do the Tree-Climbing Crabs of Sungei Buloh. When we were there the tide seemed to be a little high. Because of this, almost all these arboreal crabs have been forced to move up higher up the trees.

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Notice that these exposed roots of the mangroves are full of crabs. Here's a couple taking shelter ina hole. If they don't move up in time, they'll probably drown if the tide goes any higher.

Went to Sungei Buloh again another day to guide the pupils from Jurong Primary through the Mangrove Broadwalk. As usual I was armed with my camera and I just followed a group. This time I decided to take some shots of the reserve, which meant nice sceneries and wild plants. Here are some shots of the mangroves in the Mangrove Broadwalk.

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Some more shots of further mangroves in the water, also taken from the mangrove broadwalk.

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After going one round I walked across the bridge to hunt there and take some shots. I the very next shot, notice that the bank of the water is full of birds.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

We were about to leave Sungei Buloh soon so I went to the lockers to get some of my valuables back. Just as I was about to leave, I spotted this blue dragonfly resting on a water plan in the tiny pond beside the toilets.

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I wasn't too good at shooting this dragon since there was no sunlight and it was pretty far. I've identified it as Aethriamanta gracilis, a common species. Since I knew it was common here i decided to leave and go back home with these shots. These shots here are heavily cropped.

Went to Sungei Buloh one day after school hours with some other CCA members to test the water quality of the pond and to compare the difference between our CTW water and the water here. I was as usual one of the photographers so all I had to do was to take a few snaps of them working. After having done with that my friend and I went closer to the pond to try finding some interesting creatures... And then I noticed a small frog resting on the thin leaves above the water.

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I instantly identified it as a Common Greenback thouhg I had never seen one before. However I identified it as I have seen too many pictures of it.

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No matter how close I got, I could not get a shot of the whole frog as there were a few leaves blocking it. But after a few minutes of trying, I finally managed to get a decent shot of the whole frog in picture.

Back in Sigapore with more posts from school. Spotted a Red Grasshawk in the CTW and tried shooting it. I had about 3 hours to kill so I decided to try taking some test shots of this dragonfly.

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Apparently this time, the grasshawk was very co-operative and decided to let me photograph it. While it rested on it's favourite spot, I lied down on my front to take some close-ups.

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Tried something that I never tried before then. I took a stick and moved it close to the dragonfly. As it lifted off for a second, I quickly moved the stink just above it's favourite spot. It landed on the end of my stick and I moved it up slowly.

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However very soon it came to know that I was holding it, so it flew off with fright.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

After one whole day of hunting in the beach, I came back to my cousin's home for my final night in India! But just before I entered the house, my dad told me of a snake skin he spotted during the day while I was at the beach. Just a few metres from the front gate there it was. A shedded skin of a Spectacled Cobra.

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Tried searching for the snake around but to no avail. It should have escaped into some rat hole or must have slithered away into the bushes. However, it was getting dark so I had to go indoors. Left for Singapore the next morning.

The fishermen had caught many fishes too and offered to show me one last creature that they had caught. What was it? A Shark.

This may look like a ray but it is actually a flat shark. It's front is flat like a ray but the rest of it's body remains like a sand shark's. Here's a full-body shot.

And here's a close-up of the eyes. The small holes are not the eyes but when they blink, their eyes go into those holes. the eyes are situated just below the holes. If you look carefully you should be able to spot them.

Friday, November 27, 2009

There were several of these small yellow crabs along the shore. Most of them were about the same size as they are in these pictures (without clicking them to make the photo large). They were pretty inactive and will only respond if we attempt to provoke it.

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Most of them were covered in sand. That's when I realized that when they feel threatened, they slowly cover themselves with sand such that withina few minutes it would have sunk almost completely into the sand!

The fishermen continued showing us more and more creatures they had caught. Mostly fish and crabs. I was particularly interested in this giant shrimp that they had caught. It was about 20cm in length! Imagine catching one that big just by the beach...

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It was nearly dead as they kept all these creatures in a bucket. However I made it stand up on the sand and took a front shot.

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Apart from this big shrimp, there were many more smaller shrimps like these.

Continued walking along the beach looking for more interesting animals. Then I noticed many holes in the sand. The holes were about 7cm in diameter. That should that there was something digging these holes: Fiddler crabs. I spotted a few but they managed to retreat into their holes just before I could catch them. But in the end I managed to catch one pretty big individual who seemed to have lost both it's front claws.

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It was pretty fun photographing this crab as it would suddenly make a quick move and try to get away. It was a challenge for me to make sure it doesn't escape that fast too.

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I even held it in my hand!

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After having done with the fiddlre I moved on and found a group of fishermen catching fish and crabs from the sea. They caught them from just a few metres from the shore. They offered to let me take some shots of the creatures they had caught. This big crab that we sometimes see in our supermarkets was caught just a few metres from the shore!

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About Me

Student, 19, born and brought up in Singapore but left now pursuing college in Bangalore, India. I enjoy taking photographs, exploring the outdoors, living with nature, designing stuff, and, well, riding motorbikes.